League of Legends Season 3 Worlds Championship Analysis

Being down 2-0, Royal’s backs were against the wall. It was either win the next three games or be second in the world at League of Legends. SKT decided to keep at what was working, and their comp consisted of mobility champs with Zyra. Impact had been devastating with Jax, and Royal refused to ban or counter him. Royal had Kennen, Fizz, and Sona for AoE lockdowns in team fights. For the third match in a row, Royal focused on a team fight comp.

The 2v1 swap by SKT put a Kennen with a Doran’s Blade top against a Corki and Zyra. This was a most unfavorable matchup for Kennen, and the poke and damage from SKT was far too much for the little Yordle. This forced Royal to respond by sending their bottom lane top to 2v2. At this point, the damage had already been done, and by swapping Royal got behind in CS.

While Royal seemed to attempt to focus Impact’s Jax, he refused to get behind. Even when he walked into all of Royal while counter jungling, he attempted to get kills, kitted the entire team, and led them right into a SKT ambush. Once Royal started to lose this match, you could see a decline in their gameplay and decision making. Wh1tzz’s aggression with Fizz was not backed up and SKT would have 5v4 situations from it. Piglet’s Corki wasn’t focused and he started to run wild once again.

This match lasted less than 21 minutes before SKT took down the Nexus. Royal didn’t have any answers to SKT and these three matches truly showed that SKT is the best League of Legends team in the world right now. The 3-0 sweep ended the Worlds Finals early and rewarded SKT with the Summoner’s Cup.

SKT’s theme for character picks was high mobility, in and out, skirmish, or lock down champs. With Zyra’s Stranglethorns, huge, AoE, pop up ult and her Grasping Roots, she was able to lock down multiple opponents at once for the rest of the team to engage upon. Through high mobility, SKT could pick off threats and then clean up relatively easily. Royal relied on the tankiness and Crescendo from Sona for similar purposes. They depended on the hyper carry Vayne and glass cannon Kassadin to take out priority targets.

This game started more standard with no lane swaps. Faker’s Zed and Godlike’s Rumble both pushed their lanes immensely. Impact and Bengi just couldn’t finish off godlike in lane, and he kept getting away with a sliver of HP each gank. The combined power of Faker, Bengi and Impact managed to be enough to dive Wh1t3zz’s Kassadin for first blood. Meanwhile, SKT’s Piglet on Ezreal was threading the needle with Mystic Shots. Collectively, SKT won every lane in the laning phase this match; this even lead to an early uncontested Dragon.

It was at this point, Royal decided they were going to make this a match. Despite SKT’s massive lead, Royal’s team comp centered team clicked as they aced SKT at only sixteen minutes. The speed and hunting potential of Vayne and Kassadin was too much for SKT to escape from. Royals team fight victories made them too aggressive and chased too far, allowing Piglet to massacre their team and snowball.

When Godlike got caught outside the Baron Pit, the momentum went out of control for SKT. Piglet became an unstoppable force. Every time Kassadin would ult, Piglet would follow hit with an Arcane Shift and burn him down. Despite Piglet’s amazing game though, I found Impact’s Jax making monumental plays for his team. He wasn’t getting all the kills, but his gameplay allowed for that win to happen.

The Korean Monster, SK Telecom T1, defeats China’s Royal Club in the League of Legends Worlds Championships for Season 3. In a dominating 3-0 series, SKT truly proved that they are truly the best League of Legends team in the world. Even though the Riot annalists and fan base favored Royal Club, SKT’s Korean ‘hype-train’ proved to have an answer for everything Royal could come up with.

Why was this the case though? Did Royal lose in champion select, in their overall strategy, or were they simply outclassed? Was there more than just SKT’s Faker vs. Royal’s Uzi? From the notes I took on the floor of Worlds at the Staples Center on October 4th, I came up with my own analysis from each of the three games. With that said, let’s look at what happened in Game #1, Game #2, and Game #3:

Game #1

Bans

SKT:

Zed

Annie

Renekton

Royal:

Vi

Shen

Lee Sin

Picks

SKT:

Jax

Jarven

Gragas

Corki

Thresh

Royal:

Malphite

Elise

Orianna

Vayne

Sona

Analysis

At first glance of these team comps, it was quite clear what Royal was going for. SKT, however, was slightly more mysterious. With Malphite, Orianna, and Sona, Royal had a ridiculous engage and chain stun potential for team fights. All of SKT’s characters either had a leap, dash, or self-pull. This gave them incredible mobility as well as the ability to escape on a whim. Through teleports, Royal planned on having non-standard engages to catch SKT off guard. Unfortunately, this plan didn’t end up working due to SKT’s reflexes and mobility champs.

Faker, who is not particularly known as a counter picker, grabbed Gragas to counter Orianna. Royal’s 2v1 swap in top lane gave them the early momentum and first tower. However, in the process SKT’s jungler Bengi focused mid lane aggressively. After Faker and Bengi secured first blood against Orianna, Bengi knew her flash was down and rinse repeated for an early, rapid, and second kill on Wh1t3zz. These two early deaths seemed to affect Wh1tzz’s play for the rest of the game as he played back more.

SKT’s 4v2 dive bottom lane was a testament to their planning and coordination. Since their own top tower was down, they could shift someone mid to defend while the rest of the team could dive bottom. Not only did SKT pick up easy kills, they got the tower, and lost nothing in the process. Their ‘mobility comp’ also shone when they all went into the Baron Pit from the side and secured the buff before Royal could respond.

Over all, Royal couldn’t land their lock down combo due to SKT’s mobility. With Royal’s ults down, they would repeatedly get kited and burned down. Once their lead was significant, there was nothing Royal could do to fight them 5v5, and eventually was worn down. Bengi’s constant pressure and ability to completely shut down a lane early allowed for Faker to snowball and put Royal generally behind.

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